Recurrence criteria for generalized Dirichlet forms

Abstract: We develop sufficient analytic conditions for recurrence and transience of non-sectorial perturbations of possibly non-symmetric Dirichlet forms on a general state space. These form an important subclass of generalized Dirichlet forms which were introduced in \cite{St1}. In case there exists an associated process, we show how the analytic conditions imply recurrence and transience in the classical probabilistic sense. As an application, we consider a generalized Dirichlet form given on a closed or open subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ which is given as a divergence free first order perturbation of a non-symmetric energy form. Then using volume growth conditions of the sectorial and non-sectorial first order part, we derive an explicit criterion for recurrence. Moreover, we present concrete examples with applications to Muckenhoupt weights and counterexamples. The counterexamples show that the non-sectorial case differs qualitatively from the symmetric or non-symmetric sectorial case. Namely, we make the observation that one of the main criteria for recurrence in these cases fails to be true for generalized Dirichlet forms.